Category Archives: Nuts ‘N’ Berries (Recipes)

A couple of busy weekends have passed, and I haven’t been able to tell you about them, because stuff.

Three weekends ago, Honey and I threw a great, big launch party for Spy Guys. At first we were aiming for some sort of industry mixer thing, you know for reviewers and publishers and the like. Then we realized we really don’t know any reviewers or publishers or anything remotely of the like. So we invited people we thought would like to play the game– you know, our friends. 🙂 But it was in an open space at our favorite local pub, so if people off the street wandered in, they were welcome to join us, too! It definitely changed the tenor of the event– for one thing, now kids were invited, but I think that since the game is kid friendly, that worked to our advantage.

Wow. The Holidays really took it out of me. I’ve been recovering slowly: the tree came down some time after Valentine’s Day. And it was just this past Sunday that I was ready to start baking again. OMG! It feels so good to be back in the kitchen! And now that I AM back, I feel like I want to make All The Things. Just all of them. I don’t think that’s a lot to ask.

I started the day by picking up my favorite GF bread-making book: Gluten Free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe François. I freaking love this book. It’s because of this book that I was able to feel like I could handle myself in the kitchen again—a huge blessing. So because of Thistle’s post about West Virginia delicacies a few weeks ago, I have been chomping at the bit to try making some GF pepperoni rolls. I’ve been gathering ingredients since then: making sure I have the necessary flours to make the right blend, picking up the GF pepperoni (yes, you have to check), reviewing various recipes to figure out the best way to make these rolls. Oddly enough, Hertzberg and Francois didn’t add such an important recipe to their book, so I’ve had to innovate.

I’d love to report that I nailed it in one, but I can’t. I did bake some lovely bread rolls that have pepperoni in them. They’re tasty, because you know, PEPPERONI, but they’re not Pepperoni Rolls. I shall have to experiment some more.

While I was letting the rolls bake, I decided to try out another recipe I’ve been eye-balling for a while: vegan Doritos popcorn! Along with pepperoni, I also have to check snack foods that might be processed in a facility that also processes wheat, because even if wheat flour isn’t one of the ingredients in what I’m buying, it’s very sticky and if the machinery isn’t cleaned properly, I can still get sick. So it’s been a while since I’ve had Doritos. It’s not so much that I care that it’s vegan (I don’t) but that it’s also gluten free and SUPER easy to make. OMG.

Since it’s not my recipe, I’m not going to type it up here. Instead I will send you to the page where I found it, so that I’m not claiming something that isn’t mine. I will say this however: while the powder is delicious and is a lovely home version of Doritos, watch the salt: I love salt, but that was a bit too strong, even for me.

Honey doesn’t like pumpkin. Like, he just won’t touch it– pie, bread, muffins, cookies, drinks– any of it. So, while I could make pumpkin baked goods (and share their awesomeness with you), they won’t get eaten very fast in my house. I’m hungry, but I’m not that hungry. And while I could bring pumpkin goodies to the office, I’d prefer to make something that Honey can enjoy too.

This makes the pumpkin frenzy that starts every October more than a little annoying for me. It seems like everyone else on the Internet (at least in the kitchen communities) is busy squeeing about pumpkin spiced everything, and I cannot tap into any of it. However! There is another home-grown flavor available starting in September and going straight through every autumn. I’m really excited about the other autumn flavor: apples. Continue reading Apples: The Other October Flavor→

Thanks to all my special dietary needs, I’m the one who gets to put in the order for my office’s weekly lunch, except for when I’m out sick. Recently, one of my co-workers took on said duty when I was out, and she ordered Greek! OMG, I love Greek food. Mmm. And this place is not only right across the street from our office, but it is GOOD.

Food. OMG! I love food. I love the sweet, the savory, the sour (sometimes), and even the spicy (in small doses). Mostly, I love the sweet.

The sweets have been one of my challenges for most of my life. Everybody knows how bad they are for the human body, but I just couldn’t stop. Oh, I’d go on a diet for a while, and I’d lose some weight– never enough– but then it would be somebody’s birthday, or a holiday (I didn’t care which one), and I’d start devouring again.

My mother passed away in 2006. Sometimes I write letters to her, just to let her know how I’m doing, what’s going on in my life. I figure she already knows, being Wherever it is she is right now, but it makes me feel a little better if I can pretend to have a dialogue with her.

It’s been a long time since my last letter. I had a lot to catch her up on. Some of what came out, I realized, could be posted here– but not all of it. There are some things a girl tells her mom that she wouldn’t want published for the world to read. But the part about the seeds, I figured that was okay.